Conventional automotive vehicles typically consists of thousands of individual components connected together to form a complete vehicle. To streamline and minimize the cost associated with assembling a vehicle, manufacturers may construct subassemblies consisting of various components. Each subassembly is then attached to the vehicle as part of the final assembly. An instrument panel assembly is one such subassembly. The instrument panel assembly may include an instrument panel to which various know components, such an instrument cluster, vehicle controls, stereo system, glove compartment, ventilation system, among others, are attached. The instrument panel assembly may also include a rigid cross-car support to which the instrument panel is attached. When the instrument panel assembly is installed in the vehicle, the ends of the cross-car support are appropriately coupled to a substructure of the vehicle, such as the A-pillars, thereby insuring that the instrument panel is properly positioned and fixed for use.
Some of the components attached to the instrument panel, such as the stereo system, can be rather heavy. Attaching heavy components such as this to the instrument panel without additional support can result in the component vibrating when the vehicle is operated, particularly over rough road surfaces. This in turn can cause undesirable noise, vibration and harshness (NVH), which can negatively impact the perceived quality of the vehicle. To avoid this problem, heavy components, such as the stereo system, are often secured to a rigid body member, such as the cross-car support, in addition to the instrument panel. Attaching the component to both the instrument panel and the cross-car support, however, can cause assembly problems, such as mounting holes being misaligned, due to the compounding of manufacturing tolerances, particularly in the forward to aft dimensions. One method for alleviating this problem is to decrease the manufacturing tolerances of the various components, which unfortunately, may result in an undesirable increase in the manufacturing cost of the vehicle. Because of these and other known limitations of existing methods for connecting instrument panel components to multiple support structures, it is desirable to develop a relatively simple and cost effective means for securely mounting a vehicle component to the instrument panel assembly that is capable of accommodating manufacturing tolerances that would otherwise make assembly of the components difficult.